Fr. Roger J. Landry
Convent of the Dames of Malta, Valletta, Malta
Wednesday of the Third Week of Easter
May 4, 2022
Acts 8:1-8, Ps 66, Jn 6:35-40
To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
The outline for today’s homily was:
- The mystagogy of the Easter Season, from Christ’s appearances, to his catechesis about baptism with Nicodemus, to his catechesis about the Holy Eucharist, in the “second octave” of Easter, in which the Church, over eight weekdays, focuses on the sixth chapter of St. John’s Gospel.
- Today’s passage focuses on Jesus’ desire to do the will of the Father who sent him.
- In the first reading, we see how Saint Paul was acting on a defective notion of what God’s will was. He was persecuting the Church in good conscience, thinking that the Church was an heretical Jewish sect. But as we will soon see, Jesus would convert him on the road to Damascus. Paul would grasp that what Jesus wanted was not external adhesion to the Mosaic Law but tol live by faith in the Son of God, Jesus himself.
- Similarly, we often have defective versions of what the will of God is. Some of us think it’s merely to avoid mortal sins. Others can be quasi-Pharisaical, focused on our own action. St. Paul’s conversion helps us to ask whether we are truly living by faith in the Son of God.
- The great way we’re able to grow in continual conversion is through the Mass, in which we hear God’s word and receive the Word-made-flesh so that the principal of our life may be what God is doing within us rather than what we’re doing, so that our whole life may be one done in obedience to Christ’s command to “do this in memory of me.”
The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading I
There broke out a severe persecution of the Church in Jerusalem,
and all were scattered
throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria,
except the Apostles.
Devout men buried Stephen and made a loud lament over him.
Saul, meanwhile, was trying to destroy the Church;
entering house after house and dragging out men and women,
he handed them over for imprisonment.
Now those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.
Thus Philip went down to the city of Samaria
and proclaimed the Christ to them.
With one accord, the crowds paid attention to what was said by Philip
when they heard it and saw the signs he was doing.
For unclean spirits, crying out in a loud voice,
came out of many possessed people,
and many paralyzed and crippled people were cured.
There was great joy in that city.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (1) Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Shout joyfully to God, all the earth,
sing praise to the glory of his name;
proclaim his glorious praise.
Say to God, “How tremendous are your deeds!”
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
“Let all on earth worship and sing praise to you,
sing praise to your name!”
Come and see the works of God,
his tremendous deeds among the children of Adam.
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
He has changed the sea into dry land;
through the river they passed on foot;
therefore let us rejoice in him.
He rules by his might forever.
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Everyone who believes in the Son has eternal life,
and I shall raise him up on the last day, says the Lord.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus said to the crowds,
“I am the bread of life;
whoever comes to me will never hunger,
and whoever believes in me will never thirst.
But I told you that although you have seen me,
you do not believe.
Everything that the Father gives me will come to me,
and I will not reject anyone who comes to me,
because I came down from heaven not to do my own will
but the will of the one who sent me.
And this is the will of the one who sent me,
that I should not lose anything of what he gave me,
but that I should raise it on the last day.
For this is the will of my Father,
that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him
may have eternal life,
and I shall raise him on the last day.”
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